Free Flutter by Amanda Hocking Page B

if my phone hadn’t started ringing again, and I
had to do something about it. If Jack called repeatedly in a short
time, that meant that he wants something. Or that something was
wrong. Either way, I didn’t feel right about just letting it
ring.
    “I should get that.”
    “Don’t let me stop you,” Peter said, but his
expression had gone stony.
    I had barely even hit the answer button when I heard
Jack yelling anxiously, “What the hell have you been doing, Alice?
Are you okay? What’s going on? I’ve been trying to reach you for
days!”
    “I’ve been busy, Jack.” I tried to sound irritated.
My heart ached for him, but with Peter sitting on the bed behind
me, I didn’t want to show it. “We’ve been looking for Peter.
Remember?”
    “Why can’t you call? Or answer a text message? Or let
me know that you’re still alive?” Jack demanded.
    “I’m sorry.” I swallowed back tears, and Peter got up
off the bed. “Where are you going?”
    “What? I’m not going anywhere?” Jack was bewildered
on the phone.
    “No, not you,” I told him and nodded at Peter. “What
are you doing?”
    “Going to the bathroom. Is that okay with you?” Peter
tried to make a joke, but I could tell that he was distressed.
    “Yeah. Just don’t leave the room, okay?” I didn’t
really trust him not to sneak away.
    “Whatever you say.” Peter saluted me, then went into
the bathroom. A few seconds later, I heard the water running,
drowning out the sound of me talking to Jack.
    “Who is that?” Jack’s voice had gotten icy, so he
knew exactly who it was.
    “Peter.” I sat down on the bed, thankful for the bit
of privacy.
    “You found him?” Jack shouted incredulously. “Why
didn’t you tell me? Why are you still there? When are you coming
home? Are you okay? Did you get hurt?”
    “I’m fine, he’s fine.” I was tempted to say that Ezra
was fine, but at that moment, I didn’t know if that was true. “We
just found him last night. He needed to rest, and now we’re getting
some things sorted out. We should be leaving soon.”
    “What things sorted out?” Jack asked. “Why don’t you
just get on the next flight out of there?”
    “Peter’s still in pretty bad shape. He needs some
more time to recuperate. He’s had a rough go of it here.”
    “I thought that was the whole idea. That’s why he
went there.” Jack tried to keep the edge to his voice, but it faded
a bit. As angry as he was with Peter, he wasn’t a hateful guy.
    “We’ll be home soon. You don’t need to worry
anymore.” That actually hurt to say. I knew there was still a good
chance we wouldn’t make it out alive, but I couldn’t tell Jack
that. So I lied, and tears welled in my eyes.
    “You better be,” Jack said. “Things are going crazy
around here.”
    “What do you mean?” I asked.
    “Your brother and Bobby .”
    “Who’s Bobby?”
    “He’s… I don’t know. You’ll have to make Milo explain
when you get back,” Jack answered vaguely. “All I know for sure is
that he’s around all the time now.”
    “All the time?” I asked. “I’ve only been gone for
like ten days!”
    “It’s been a pretty wild ten days around here,” Jack
said. “And Bobby showed up like the day after you left. So yeah.
It’s been eventful.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “You’ll see when you get home,” Jack said. “It’ll
give you more of an incentive to get here quicker. As if I weren’t
incentive enough.”
    “No, you’re definitely enough,” I laughed sadly.
Laughing at his silly jokes made me want to sob.
    After I hung up, I knocked on the bathroom door to
let Peter know the coast was clear, and he came out a minute later.
He was much more subdued, so we said very little to each other.
    I showered and got dressed, and after that, there
wasn’t much else to do. Peter lay on the bed with his fingers laced
behind his head, staring up at the ceiling. I paced the room and
frequently peeked out of the curtains.
    We just